1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a diagnostic support device and a diagnostic support system for supporting a diagnosis of a display status of a composite image displayed on an on-board display device for displaying, on an instrument panel, vehicle state information such as a vehicle speed and engine revolutions and additional information for assisting a driver, such as a navigation image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an on-board display device for displaying additional information for assisting a driver, such as a navigation image in addition to car information such as vehicle speed and engine revolutions has been proposed (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-123848).
According to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-123848, it is possible to allow a driver to drive comfortably and smoothly, by displaying for the driver, on a wide display, desired information corresponding to driving condition.
The layout of an image to be displayed on an instrument panel (hereinafter referred to as an instrument panel image) must be displayed in a manner suitable with a vehicle individually or in a manner according to a user's preference. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-297319 discloses an instrument panel image selection device enabling a user to freely select a favorite instrument panel image.
The layout of an instrument panel image must generally be determined in a cautious manner for safety reasons. For this reason, it is necessary to finally determine the layout after sufficient consideration of each of the selected layouts. The same is true of both systems disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-123848 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-297319, too.
However, the instrument panel displayed in accordance with a predetermined layout would look different in simulation and in actual driving.
Thus, the difference between the case of the simulation and the case of the actual driving can cause a problem with safety.
Therefore, International Publication WO 2006/022228 A1 discloses a simulation device which is an application development support tool in which a simulation close to the actual driving feel can be realized whereby an instrument panel image looks the same in simulation and actual driving.
The simulation device disclosed in International Publication WO 2006/022228 A1 has a command string which is a group of commands necessary for displaying, on a screen, a composite image that becomes an instrument panel image by combining a plurality of rectangular images (composite target images). The simulation device disclosed in International Publication WO 2006/022228 A1 can display a desired instrument panel image by executing the command string.
However, the look of the instrument panel image obtained by carrying out suitable simulation that is close to the actual driving feel may be different from the look of the display screen that a designer of the display screen has intended.
In this case, in the simulation apparatus disclosed in International Publication WO 2006/022228 A1, a diagnostic support system as shown in FIG. 11 is constructed, and a problem on a display screen of an instrument panel is examined.
That is, in the diagnostic support system shown in FIG. 11, an editing apparatus 1101 outputs commands one by one from a command string composed of a plurality of commands to an image combining section 1202 of an image combining apparatus 1201, the image combining apparatus 1202 reads a composite image (rectangular image) from a rectangular image storage section 1203, and the thus read image is displayed on an on-board display device 1301. Thus, the problem occurring on the display screen is examined.
The rectangular images in the on-board display 1301 are disposed or superimposed by executing combinations of a plurality of commands inputted into the image combining apparatus 1201. Therefore, by executing the commands one by one and looking at the display screen each time, in the end it is possible to find a problem occurring on the display screen. However, it takes a lot of time to find the problem.
Furthermore, even if the problem occurring on the display screen is found, it is very difficult to find a command causing the problem because the rectangular images are disposed or superimposed by combinations of a plurality of commands.